SB Acoustics Satori Monitor

[_henry_]

great! looking forward for your take on the project.

i did some sb17 and sb15 in the past, they perform very well. i think Satori will going to be excellent performer.

regards
henry

 

[tvrgeek]

Passive will give a much wider potential audience to support the vendor. Quite a reasonable choice.

 

[cotdt]

Why not use the Scanspeak/Peerless HDS tweeter? It has the advantage of being 8 ohms and is proven to sound great and easy for amps to drive.

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

My job is to do a two way with Satori woofers and tweeters. Therefore i put this project into Vendor´s Bazaar.

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

I have now measured the woofer and will post the results soon.
I can already say that it is exceptional wide band and clean.

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

Here is the frequency response at 50cm on the baffle. The other measurement is a comparison on axis and 45° off axis.

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

The response is exceptional extended, up to 15kHz and that is without a wizzer cone.
Better then some full range drivers. Off axis the response it good to 3.5kHz so a crossover between 1.8kHz and 3kHz is possible. There is a small notch at the edge resonance but you will see that this does not produce distortion.

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

Here is the near field response in 10cm. That way the effect of the baffle is eroded.

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

Here is harmonic distortion at medium volume and spectrum at 200Hz and 1.1kHz. This driver is exceptional clean. Second harmonic is the lowest i measured, third is low too.
The 1.1kHz spectrum has just 0.3% THD, the spectrum at 200Hz is around 1%.

 

[_henry_]

with such a natural rolloffs on offaxis in 3khz, i think i really going to like this

cheers
henry

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

Here are the multi tone measurements, also very clean and inverse FFT ( Gerhard Test ) even lower then the tweeter. The tweeter will of cause not get the full energy over the whole band because the crossover will lower the energy under 2kHz.

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

I have measured the T/S parameters of the Satori woofer. My results come out close to the published data of the 8 Ohm model. I have somewhat less Qm and a bit lower Qts.
A QB3 reflex would come out at 15 liter so this driver works well in a rather small enclosure. I decided on an slightly over damped alignment in a 20 liter box.
In that box -3dB is around 50Hz. In room the extension will go into the 30th. I think pushing such a small driver deeper makes no sense but it is a very good performance in a compact cabinet. Also quite ideal to add a sub later.

 

[gornir]

Joachim,

Looks great!

What baffle width did you settle for?

Regards

/Göran

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

Well, as we discussed, around 30cm so this will not be your typical slim mini monitor. By the way the delay between the tweeter and woofer is around 32mm when we take the backs of the baskets as reference.

 

[gornir]

Joachim,

I don't know if you read the issue 4/2012 of the "Hobby Hifi" magazine where they tested the 8 Ohm version of the Satori mid-woofer?

It seems like your distortion measurements doesn't show the same second-order distortion peak at the cone-edge resonance as they measured, which is a good thing.

I wonder if SB Acoustic made any changes to the design?

Regards

/Göran

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

I have that issue but the drivers that i have do not show distortion at the frequencies.
I checked that several times because i know that this can be a problem.
Maybe they got early prototypes.

 

[gornir]

I have that issue but the drivers that i have do not show distortion at the frequencies.
I checked that several times because i know that this can be a problem.
Maybe they got early prototypes.

That's great news!

However I don't think the importance of the second-order distortion peak at the cone-edge resonance should be over exaggerated.

I have the same issue with my AudioTechnology 15H mid-woofer and it's one of the best sounding mid-woofers I've had in my possession.

AudioTechnology 15H520613SDK Measurements!

I think a pair of Satories will be in my shopping list soon.

Where could I get the 4 ohm version?


/Göran

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

Low loss comes with a little edge resonance, sure, but the sound of low loss is better.
Especially in the micro detailing and dynamics.
SB has some 4 Ohm in stock.

 

[gornir]

Low loss comes with a little edge resonance, sure, but the sound of low loss is better.
Especially in the micro detailing and dynamics.
SB has some 4 Ohm in stock.

Yes, but I guess they don't sell directly to end customers.

/Göran

 

[Joachim Gerhard]

I can get you some.